Ball State Internet users can browse the times, dates and locations of campus events courtesy of the university's new online calendar. This calendar combines event information from departments, offices and units across campus, and it's planning to expand.
The calendar currently lists events from departments including athletics, the Career Center and Emens Auditorium.
Students can locate it under www.bsu.edu/calendar.
The second phase of the program will begin today. The program is managed by Vignette, a web-based, content-management system which allows organizations to share information for calendars.
Currently, only students capable of using Vignette can access the calendar. But after the second phase, non - Vignette users can add their events to the calendar's Web page. The second phase will also launch a program capable of downloading the calendar to Outlook. Users can create appointments on Outlook, but the program will not work on webmail.
Kyle Parker, a programmer for computing services, activated the program Oct. 14 because Ball State lacked a comprehensive calendar.
"Areas can share their events with the comprehensive university calendar, allowing all events to be viewed in one convenient location either by date or by event category," Parker said.
Parker said he feels this calendar will give people a more detailed picture of who and what organization is sponsoring each event.
"This will give organizations a chance to promote their events," he said.
Al Rent, director of marketing, said he feels the program will impact students positively.
"People can really see the campus," Rent said. "There is more of an internal rather than an external benefit to know what's going on in campus. Now there is a universal source that can help communication significantly."
The program, according to Rent, benefits marketing because it promotes the university to high school students looking to attend college in the fall.
It also impacts current students by helping them become more active in university events, Rent said.
"If you know what is going on, you feel more included," he said.
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